Thursday Practice Report: Lineup In Flux

The Crew will not sign a designated player when the transfer window opens June 27, but the club
is still optimistic it will bring one in this summer, head coach Robert Warzycha said today.

The Crew had been negotiating with its top candidate, an unidentified striker from Argentina,
for several weeks. The talks hit a roadblock two weeks ago, technical director Brian Bliss said at
the time, and now the club has moved on to other players.

“It’s not frustrating because that’s normal,” Warzycha said. “You negotiate the salary and
negotiate everything and sometimes the number doesn’t work. We have a salary cap so we have some
restrictions. We tried but it didn’t work so we move on.”

The club had targeted players primarily in Argentina but is now broadening its scope. The plan
is still to bring in a goal-scorer and Warzycha is optimistic a deal will be worked out before the
transfer window closes this summer.

“We’re getting closer, but we still have some time,” he said. “We’ve been working on this since
probably last year. We’re not trying to just spend the money; we’re trying to find a guy who really
fits what we need here. We’re still looking.”

Mirosevic MissingThe return of MLS play has also meant a return to Warzycha’s weekly juggling of the lineup
due to injuries.

Options abound atop the starting lineup as midfielder Milovan Mirosevic is questionable for
Saturday’s match at Chicago. After starting and going the full 90 minutes in last weekend’s
scoreless road draw with New England, the central midfielder has missed most of the team’s training
after apparently re-aggravating a groin injury suffered May 19 at San Jose.

“He was here at the beginning (of training),” Warzycha said of Mirosevic. “He has an MRI today.
He’s getting an MRI right now.I didn’t want to push it in case there’s something over there they
know about.”

The club has moved up the start of practices this week to avoid the heat. Today’s typical
scrimmaging session, usually a preview of Saturday’s starting lineup, was only ongoing while
reporters were allowed in for about 10 minutes. During that period, Chris Birchall was lined up in
Mirosevic’s spot with the first team.

When Mirosevic missed two matches with the injury, Cole Grossman replaced him in the starting
lineup. Warzycha said Grossman, Birchall, Tony Tchani and Eddie Gaven are all options to replace
Mirosevic should he not be able to go against the Fire.

“We’re trying to find the best position,” Warzycha said. “I do like the fact that we have
options, but the best would be to have some consistency and work on that. When you play the same
lineup a few times they can play better because they understand each other more.”

Rookie defensive midfielder Kevan George was back in action after missing some time this week
with an undisclosed injury. He was with the first team.

Thursday is typically a day when the coaching staff will experiment with two or three starting
lineups. With that qualifier, here is who made up the first unit at the end of practice: